Thank You, Kentucky Baptists!!

Good cold, December morning.  I understand that dreaded word “snow” may be in the forecast this week.  I love snow, that is as long as I can stay in and look at it.  There is just a quietness, a calmness, a peacefulness in sitting inside a cozy, warm house looking out over a freshly fallen snow.  There is nothing more beautiful, more pure.  Kinda reminds me of the opening words to a Christmas carol – “Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright.” 

My thoughts are kinda rambling this morning as this is my last blog post as Missions Mobilization Coordinator with the Kentucky Baptist Convention.  I have announced my retirement, effective December 31, and will be stepping down from this position.  I began serving with the KBC in August 1999, working with then Mountain Missions Director David Aker in eastern Kentucky.  On April 1, 2008 my position was expanded to Missions Mobilization Coordinator, coordinating and promoting in-state missions and giving leadership to Kentucky Mission Service Corps Missionaries. 

These past twenty-four years have been so rewarding.  I have thoroughly enjoyed my work,  have met so many nice people, served with so many Kentucky missionaries & ministries, Kentucky Baptist churches & associations, the Kentucky WMU, and a great KBC staff., especially the Missions Mobilization Team  There is no doubt in my mind that God prepared me and placed me in this position, and it has been a joy to serve Him alongside Kentucky Baptists.

As I step down from this position I want to say thank you.  Thank you to the many KY-MSC missionaries and ministries I have been privileged to serve alongside.  Thank you to the thousands of short-term volunteers who have come from near and far to serve across our state.  Thank you to those who prayed for missionaries and church planters through interSEED.  Thank you to those who “adopted” Kentucky Mission Service Corps Missionaries.  Thank you for your encouragement and support of me personally.

And, during this Christmas season, I want to say thank you to those who filled Christmas Backpacks for needy children.  The Christmas Backpack Initiative 2023 is now underway.  Kentucky Baptist Churches, and churches in our partnering states, have filled fifteen thousand, nine hundred (15,900) backpacks that will be distributed to children in Kentucky and in our SEND CINCINNATI partnership during December 2023.  (Kentucky churches filled 8,906 backpacks, and our partnering state conventions contributed 6,994.) 

Thanks to Kentucky WMU for helping to promote the initiative each year, to many of our Kentucky Baptist Associations for serving as associational collection sites, to the four regional collection sites, and to the hundreds of volunteers that helped sort, transport, and get the backpacks to ministry sites in time for their Christmas Outreach Events.  Please pray that many will hear and respond to the Gospel message through these backpack events.

I look forward to seeing what doors God will open to me in retirement.  God bless & Merry Christmas!!